A few weeks ago, I stumbled onto Fiverr, a place where you can buy reviews at Amazon and twitter followers and a whole host of things. An author offered to test if out for me and sent me an account to post on Dear Author. Here it is:

“For $5, I’ll leave a five-star review of your Kindle ebook, purchase it (up to .99), ‘like’ it, and vote down negative reviews!” After signing up for the help-for-hire site Fiverr, I clicked the “Order Now” button and was redirected to Paypal. I entered my Paypal information, and was then re-directed back to Fiverr to enter the URL of my ebook on Amazon. For this test, I used a dummy ebook I self-published under a pseudonym.

Eight hours later, I checked my ebook’s page on Amazon and there it was: A glowing, five-star review! Four paragraphs in length, even. And it appeared the reviewer had actually read my ebook. “A one-of-a-kind vampire book!” read the subject line. The reviewer name-dropped several top vampire television shows and movies in the review (Twilight, the Vampire Diaries), a nice touch (and one that would, of course, help my ebook out when Google’s search engine spidered the Amazon page). Through several details in the review, it was apparent that the reviewer had actually read my book. Or at least skimmed it. It sounded like a lot of work to go through for just five bucks. Or four bucks, since the reviewer spent .99 to buy my ebook, thereby giving it a quick sales ranking boost.

I clicked on the reviewer’s name and saw a list of dozens of other five-star reviews that they had written. Every book was self-published, and every book was rated five stars. I recognized one of the authors on the list as a self-published writer whose ebooks regularly hit the Kindle charts’ Top 100. “You need a critical mass of readers to generate word of mouth,” the author wrote in a guest post on a popular “indie publishing” blog. Word of mouth, or a critical mass of fake reviews and purchases to push your ebooks into the Kindle Top 100? With ebooks, visibility is a big part of the marketing equation. Once an ebook hits the Kindle Top 100, sales tend to snowball as new customers discover it in greater numbers.

Meanwhile, my own bought-and-paid-for reviewer sent me a quick note. “It was actually a fun read,” the e-mail said. “Thanks.” Damn, I thought. This prostitute has great bedside manner. Once I logged back into my Fiverr account, I gave the reviewer a “thumbs up” evaluation. It was only afterwards that I reflected back on how I had originally picked my reviewer out of the hundreds available on Fiverr: on the basis of the half a dozen positive appraisals of their “services.” Had I fallen victim to the same scam that I had been attempting to pull off (in the name of journalism)? Somewhere, I realized with existential horror, there is a black market for fake Fiverr reviews.

Another author sent me this note after the romance bookscan numbers came out “Out of the 700-something thousand books sold last week in ‘romance’, 550k of them were EL James.”

Bookscan is run by Nielsen and romance is in scare quotes because authors like Danielle Steele, Nicholas Sparks, and Emily Giffen are considered romance authors.

In 2013, the Edgar Awards will recognize digital first books from an Approved E-Book publisher list. I only found Amazon on the list of those who had digital first imprints other than the Big 6.

Harvard University says it cant afford journal publishers prices | Science | guardian.co.uk – “Exasperated by the rising subscription costs charged by academic publishers, Harvard University has encouraged thousands of faculty members to make their research articles freely available through open access journals and to resign from publications that keep articles behind costly paywalls.A memo from Harvard Library to the universitys 2,100 teaching and research staff called for action after warning it could no longer afford the price hikes imposed by many large journal publishers, which cost the library around $3.5m a year.”Guardian

Tor Books goes completely DRM-free – Boing Boing – “Today, Tor Books, the largest science fiction publisher in the world, announced that henceforth all of its ebooks would be completely DRM-free. This comes six weeks after an antitrust action against Tor’s parent company, Macmillan USA, for price-fixing in relation to its arrangements with Apple and Amazon. Now that there is a major publisher that has gone completely DRM-free (with more to follow, I’m sure; I’ve had contact with very highly placed execs at two more of the big six publishers), there is suddenly a market for tools that automate the conversion and loading of ebooks from multiple formats and vendors. For example, I’d expect someone to make a browser plugin that draws a “Buy this book at BN.com” button on Amazon pages (and vice-versa), which then facilitates auto-conversion between the formats. I’d also expect BN.com to produce a “switch” toolkit for Kindle owners who want to go Nook (and vice-versa).”Boing Boing

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Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty.
You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

41 Comments

The really scary thing about the fake Fiverr reviews is that it’s probably a very cost-effective strategy. For what I pay for a Romance of the Week ad on Kindle Daily Nation, I could buy 50 5-star reviews plus 50 sales of my book. I’m a little sickened by the thought that the latter option would probably have a more lasting effect on my sales than the former.

Jane, why didn’t you write a truly execrable book for your paid-review test? (DA goes undercover, story to follow on 60 Minutes.) Your reviewer may have a great bedside manner, but you apparently give good book.

I would hope the MWA would consider books from more than just Amazon. I confess I do not read that many digital first mysteries, but places like Carina do publish them.

If the publishing industry is really so convinced Amazon is out to destroy them, why don’t they take steps to talk up existing competition other than B&N or, as Jane and others have suggested for years, go DRM free and offer Kindle compatible books from their own storefront?

…there is suddenly a market for tools that automate the conversion and loading of ebooks from multiple formats and vendors…

Suddenly? Really? That’s one of the many functions of Calibre and Calibre is free.

Your experience with the Fiverr review completely validates my methodology of how I consider Amazon reviews.

– If the book has a higher than seems plausible ratio of 5-to-other star reviews, become immediately suspicious and then….
1) Click on name of earliest and/or highest ‘helpful’ 5-star review
2) Is this person Harriet Klausner?
if yes, then bypass and go on to next review
if no, go to step 3
3) is this their only review?
– if yes, get even more suspicious
-if no, cursorily eye-ball their other reviews
4) do they only hand out only 5-star reviews?
-if yes, disregard opinion altogether, and start again at step 1 with different reviewer
– if no, still feel suspicious but allow that they may have liked the book, and start again at step 1 with a different reviewer

If by the time you’ve gone through 3 or so reviews and you keep getting to the ‘disregard opinion’ in step 4, bypass book altogether.

As someone who religiously posts reviews to Amazon, the whole Fiverr this is so disheartening. Fake 5-star reviews take so much away from the books out there that really worthy of praise.

A couple of weeks ago, I was approached to read a self published book, that was full of 5 star reviews. I almost didn’t read it because it had too many positive reviews. It actually turned out to be a good book. I wonder how many people were too skeptical to give it a try because the system is so broken.

As a professional reviewer, it occurs to me that I could make a tidy penny selling FOUR star reviews to savvy authors. With a copy of the book in hand, I could skim it and write an authentic sounding, personalized review in about an hour. At five bucks-less-purchase price of book, I’d make only about half minimum wage, but a lot better than I earn on my actual published reviews.

I’m de-lurking to say: WTF?!! That Fiverr story makes me sick. I will never trust another Amazon review ever again. And now when I see that one of my reviews has been voted as ‘unhelpful’, I will wonder if it was done so by a fiverr person.

I will see what my friends on Goodreads have to say about a book now. Thank you and the author who tested this “service” and for making us aware of this disservice.

This Fivrr stuff is just a sad, really a sad reflection of society – same thing with Shades and books like Shades that are doing so well because of the nature of their subject matter. Really, really sad.

I’m usually wary of 5 star and 1 star reviews; I take both with a grain of salt. I rarely give a 5 star review, and if I do I am very detailed why.

If people can make a buck, they will. $5 is pretty cheap and you’d have to churn out a lot of hacked together reviews to make it worthwhile; but I suppose it beats getting up and driving to a day job if there are enough folks willing to pay you for it. Interesting times, these are.

I think the Fiverr story is pretty funny. Surprised you hadn’t heard of it before. Paid/Fake positive reviews don’t bother me at all, but that’s because I don’t buy solely based on the opinions of complete strangers.

The Fiverr story isn’t unexpected, but it’s disheartening. I do use reviews when I’m looking for new authors to try, but I use a process similar to Tina to weed out the worthless reviews. It just makes it more work than it ought to be. I’ll also check out reviews of books I’ve already read, and if I find someone who agrees with my assessment check out what else they’ve reviewed.

I’m surprised that anyone is surprised something like Fiverr exists. I remember twenty or more years ago magazines and newspapers being lousy with ads to “Get paid to watch TV!” or “Get paid to read books!” or otherwise “Get paid to give your opinion!” They weren’t cutting checks for negativity. In other words, reviews have never been trustworthy. The internet simply makes the business of lying more efficient.

Huh. It’s funny that we’re so dependent on reviews these days. When I was shopping brick & mortar, I never read a review. It’s so weird how the digital revolution has changed so much. Not all for the better.

I really despise anyone who pays for a review with anything other than the book being reviewed >8( . I’ve also grown to hate spammers and idiots who ruin self-publishing for the rest of us.

Oh well, at least it’ll create new kinds of gatekeepers–like Rock It Reads–or something more transparent than that even.

I truly believe in self-publishing, but it’s getting disheartening to see what’s becoming of it and where my name could be lumped in >8(.

I found the Fiverr piece both hilarious and horrifying. Posting fake reviews is bad, but obviously pretty common. I do look at Amazon reviews and hope (?) I can spot the fake and/or useless ones. If I’m suspicious but unsure, I’ll look at the other reviews posted by the person—that’s usually enough to verify. But the thumbs-down on negative reviews by “real” reviewers is especially icky. Guess we have to take everything w/ a grain (or shaker) of salt.

That said, I can’t imagine who is writing these reviews. I sure wouldn’t do it for a handful of pocket change that’s not enough to even buy a cup of coffee. Not worth it.

I don’t find any humor in the World Book Night situation. To be honest, while I don’t think much of B&N, I do quite enjoy my local BAM. But this is stupid, and I think less of them for it. On the surface, it sounds like a nice idea to try to encourage people to read, but I’m just not sure how effective it could be. Are they really thinking they can “convert” large numbers of people by providing them with free reading material? Libraries have lots of free books, and that doesn’t seem to be helping. Instead of handing out free books to all and sundry passersby on street corners, why don’t they actually put those bucks and effort towards doing something for their real patrons for a change? And to snub Amazon (assuming they even wanted to participate) is childish. And guess what B&N and BAM? I don’t buy many DTB MMPs* anymore, but when I do, Amazon regularly gives me free books in their 4-for-3 deal. So bite me.

*Although I’d love to spend time (and money) in their cookbook and non-fiction sections if they thought it worth their while to make it a pleasant experience for me. But since I can’t stand for long periods of time, and all the available seating appears to be taken up by people who park themselves all day to use books as free reference resources for their theses, I’ll stick to the internet, thanks.

I really despise anyone who pays for a review with anything other than the book being reviewed >8( .

Umm, I really hope that you’re not including the professional review journals and those of us who write for them in this blanket condemnation.

Libraries have lots of free books, and that doesn’t seem to be helping. Instead of handing out free books to all and sundry passersby on street corners, why don’t they actually put those bucks and effort towards doing something for their real patrons for a change?

The World Book Night books were donated, and the people who gave them away were all volunteers on their own time.

The “real patrons” of any public library are … the public. That is, any and all of the people who live and work and go to school in their service district, whether they make it through the doors or not.

That being said, what do you suggest librarians do that we aren’t doing now? That’s a sincere question. Any halfway decent librarian would be pleased and excited to hear your suggestions, although fulfilling them might not be feasible on the tiny portion of your taxes that makes up their budget.

P.S. We have lots of cookbooks and other non-fiction and plenty of comfy seating. Or you can even take the books home with you, as long as you bring them back!

I do look at Amazon reviews and hope (?) I can spot the fake and/or useless ones. If I’m suspicious but unsure, I’ll look at the other reviews posted by the person—that’s usually enough to verify.

I dunno it’s easy. I thought it was before reviews started coming in for my book. A few of them have what people keep saying is “obviously fake” trademarks. None of the reviews on my book are fake (I can’t prove that, btw), but I am a little sad at the shaming of reviewers because of this (not that you did that, but it’s becoming a “thing” with people lately).

Something that concerns me is the pointing at some books’ positive reviews and calling out that reviewer because you (a general you, not pointing fingers) didn’t like it. Fairly often I find reviews that state something akin to “the other reviewers are crazy, this is a terrible book”. Shaming other reviewers is just wrong imo. It negates the time they took to write a review about something the liked that you (general you again) didn’t. It’s happening more often since this whole Fiverr thing as well. Now it’s just added that some of the reviews point the finger and call the others “fake”.

The sooner Amazon–or anyone–can expose the names of fake reviewers, the better. What would be really sad is if the fake reviewers also made some real reviews. Come to think of it, this whole fake review thing is nauseating.

If I were Amazon, for the integrity of my review system, I would invest about $100 and an intern’s time to go and purchase “fake” reviews on fiverr, and then once they were received, shut down the reviewer’s account.

The Fiverr business is disgusting, but it’s only a substitute for the circle of family, friends, and church that some authors are able to whip up. I recently brought Mark Coker’s attention to two authors gaming the review system at Smashwords in a particularly egregious and obvious manner (V Bertolacinni, someone notorious for his review shenanigans at Amazon and Sarah Rebecca Kelly) . Kelly in particular has whipped both pet rescue and her local church to post (very obviously) fake reviews. But MC said since all the reviews were based on actual purchases, he didn’t see a problem – even though I mentioned Fiverr and specifically showed him where Smashwords was one of the review venues being gamed – because to him it’s okay to round up 40 or 50 people in your social circle to post meaningless reviews.

How is that different, in effect, from using Fiverr? I should note that Amazon very specifically forbids reviews by family members (or anyone having a financial interest in a product.) They will also take action if like the two authors I mentioned, there are a large number of shill reviews for a book, as for example they did on “Hacker Hunter” by Christopher Keenan (look for this on the forums to find a huge discussion about it.)

However, customer reviews on books are usually of no importance to me because most people lack my impeccable taste and are therefore unreliable :)

Buying a review on Fiverr feels way too much like solicitation for me – like, if I’m desperate enough for a date, and can’t get one the usual way, I’d rather go dateless than pay someone to hang out with me. The same thing goes for Fiverr and similar schemes (b/c I assume there must be similar schemes.) It’s too much like Publish America; I really don’t have the confidence to assume that my book, if rejected by E and NY, is still worthy of distribution, so I’m not going to pay Publish America. I’m not knocking self-publishing. I’m just saying that the whole gatekeeper aspect of house publishing – whether NY 6 or E – is often overlooked.

The ‘gatekeeper’ aspect is obviously fabulous with masterpieces like Fifty Shades of Grey as its products.

If you are, rather clumsily, trying to say that house published authors don’t engage in shill reviews and other behaviour too often associated with self-published writers, then you are sadly mistaken.

I’ve done the house publishing thing. I don’t need a company capable of ‘repurposing’ fanfiction, to tell me if my original writing is worth throwing out there for the readers, and I don’t need to pay *anyone* to distribute it. That’s the nice thing about ebooks.

Gatekeepers have good and bad points. The good is that they have an established editing service–though even they will admit that is suffering lately. The bad is that they cling to old values and old thought processes and old systems of gatekeeping which, in today’s society, are way too outdated.

The problem is that they’ve gatekeepered™ the heck out of the industry so much that gay romance is still left out of the loop while reworked fanfiction is gaining a foothold. WTF kind of gatkeepering™ is that?

Who turns up their nose at a widely read, huge fanbase like LGBTQ romance? Bit 6 and big NY gatekeepers, that’s who. I’ll put my faith back in the trade publishers when they start opening their freaking eyes. And no, 50 shades doesn’t count because what spoke to them is the ready-made fanbase of one particular author. What about the readymade fanbase of LBGTQ romance?

And yes, I have a myopic view when it comes to the big publishers when it comes to LGBTQ issues, but I can point out that they also refuse genre hopping books. There’s a spectacular amount of self-published books that do very well but the authors have been turned down simply because the trade publishers couldn’t box the stories into one category–not fully romance? Not quite women’s fiction? Oh noes, we can’t sell that.

PFT.

Now I’m going to go back to writing because my soapbox just dented from my stomping.

@hapax: My comments weren’t a slam against libraries, but B&N and BAM. As someone who buys a lot of books and already patronizes their stores (but less frequently as time goes by), I think it would behoove them more to encourage me to come in, linger, and buy than to randomly solicit people on the street. When I go into a B&N now, half the floorspace is taken up by non-book crap (greeting cards, party decorations, toys, Burt’s Bees stuff, etc.). I’ll admit to buying some of this stuff on impulse when I’m in there, but it’s not why I go in the first place. I’m coming thru the door because I want a book, not a kitschy keychain. And the non-fiction, craft, cooking, etc. sections have all been decimated so they can squeeze in a few more racks of calendars. And there’s no seating. But they don’t care about my opinions, and I’m not the expert in marketing strategies as they so obviously are.

I can’t address the issues that libraries face. Different subject. I don’t check out any fiction material anymore, but do enjoy the non-fiction materials at the two libraries nearest me, but the selections are limited due to strained budgets. Resources go more towards children and young adults, which is OK by me. (And the seating is still limited.)

@Dani Alexander: If I see a string of 5-star reviews that are all about 3 sentences long and say something to the effect that they liked the book, they weren’t expecting much because it was only $1.99 but it really surprised them, the characters were engaging, and the plot was thrilling, well, I might check to see what other reviews they’ve posted. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see a pattern. Even if they’re “real” reviews, they’re not helpful to me in forming an opinion on whether or not I want to spend my time and/or money on that book. They fall into my “useless” category and I move on to another one. I don’t discount those reviewers’ rights to have an opinion and express them in the way they did, I’m not going to ding them w/ an unhelpful vote, I’m not going to “shame them,” I’m simply going to disregard them if something more suited to my needs is available. My prerogative.

To quote Vivian from “Pretty Woman” — never kiss on the mouth. It’s too personal.

The item that caught my attention is the MWA’s “approved publisher” list for the Edgar award. Too sad and too familiar, since the ACFW for Christian fiction writers also has an “approved publisher” list. I strongly disagree with the position that writers’ groups have any right to dictate business models to publishers. Is it just me, or does this seem counterproductive to anyone else?

I’m not that surprised about the Fiverr reviews. People want good press. If you can’t get people to provide it on their own, then hire someone to do it. Look at all the video testimonials available on Fiverr as well.

I used to offer reviews as a service on Fiverr. I never expected it to be that popular, but I had more orders for it than any other gig. People were very specific too, it needed to be written in this voice, highlighting these things. I quit doing them because in the end, it was far too much work for a $4 sale (Fiverr takes $1).

Mother of pearl, this is horrifying!! I am brand new to the indie publishing world and can say, as a very recent laymen to all these secret goings-on, that I had no idea. I wouldn’t say I rely heavily on reviews (my ultimate purchase decision comes from reading the sample), but I can see how many people do. We live in a lazy, instant-gratification society and it seems this problem will only get worse. I just recently read somewhere else that the big publishing companies have begun to do the same thing, from the opposite end of the spectrum–bashing successful indies with false negative reviews. Scary times. In my opinion, Amazon/Goodreads/etc. should do away with reviews altogether, because they’re clearly not working anymore. Even an author who produces a genuinely good piece of writing and builds an honest following is suspect to cheating at this point.

How on earth are the fivver reviews getting around the FTC requirement that they have to disclose any payment (even if only receiving book free) in their review?

To my knowledge, both amazon and goodreads ( to name two sites already mentioned) have policies in place to comply with that regulation. Particularly it gets reiterated if you are reviewing on amazon via the Vine program and again on goodreads if reviewing a first reads giveaway win.

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